Oxford Properties Group and RBC took top honours in the CivicAction Race to Reduce energy challenge, a team excellence award for sustainability efforts at Royal Bank Plaza, and at 315 and 325 Front St W. The gang at last week’s reception: Rod Phillips (CivicAction); Lachlan MacQuarrie, John Spano and Marlee Kohn (Oxford); Vanessa Perdue, Nadeem Shabbar and Ruth Weiner (RBC); Ontario environmental commissioner Gord Miller; Sevaun Palvetzian and Linda Weichel (CivicAction); and CBRE’s Carl Mores. Oxford launched a joint landlord-tenant Green Team in 2012 to make its buildings top performers. It got another RTR award for greatest energy reduction in a building over 1M SF, with a 6.1% drop at Richmond Adelaide Centre from 2012 to 2013 (as did 77 Bloor St W, owned and managed by Bay Bloor Equities and Morguard Investments, with a 21.5% drop; and Cadillac Fairview's TD South Tower, down 8.5%.)

A handful of other high-profile GTA buildings earned Race to Reduce accolades for low energy use, including Bell Trinity Square (Northam Realty Advisors), seen above; One Mount Pleasant Road (Rogers Communications); Canada Square (Canada Square Co-Tenancy/ Northam Realty); and Mississauga Executive Centre 4 (Desjardins Financial Security Life Assurance Co / AIMCo Realty Investors / ONTARI Holdings / Colliers International). The Race to Reduce represents over 69M SF (about 42%) of the Toronto region’s office space. It's a great example of the private sector coming together to make a measurable impact, Gord Miller said in a keynote.